The furthest twitch

Great Australian Bight

I've just successfully completed my furthest twitch to date. We've both been a bit flat out recently and so we thought a weekend away might be a pleasant break from the work nightmare. And what better excuse for a quick holiday than an American vagrant blowing into a caravan park 1900km away in South Australia on the coast of the Great Australian Bight.

The Big Galah, Kimba

We flew into Adelaide on Saturday morning, grabbed a hire car and then set off on a 660km drive up through Port Augusta and then west into the open plains and mallee country towards the Nullarbor. It's tremendous down there and I'd certainly like to return for a closer inspection but this trip was all business and time was scarce. On the way we passed the rather unimpressive Big Galah which stands some 7m tall in the township of Kimba which claims to be the halfway point across Australia. It doesn't look like that to me on a map but I guess it's probably close enough. They need to get people into their roadhouse somehow.

Sunset in the mallee

And so now officially on the far side of the country, we safely pulled in to Venus Bay after dark without having collided with any kangaroos, emus or speeding road trains.

Venus Bay caravan park

On Sunday morning I was up at dawn to maximise my time searching for the bird and on opening the curtains in our cabin I saw a small dark gull standing outside. And that was that. The Laughing Gull #481 was on the list after maybe 3 or 4 seconds of searching. An embarrassingly easy twitch with the remoteness of the location being the only challenge.

Laughing Gull

Talking to the owner of the caravan park I learned that the bird had been there for at least 2 months already and they were very thankful that someone had noticed what it was as now there's a regular stream of guests turning up in what is the low season. Of course they make sure it's well fed and it won't be going anywhere for the time being!

Engage cruise control

At least an early success meant a leisurely drive back to Adelaide with a couple of stops in the mallee scrub to try and pick up some local specialities. Despite the teasing road signs warning of Malleefowl swarming onto the highway I didn't manage to add anything else to my list. It seems that the lowly House Sparrow has very successfully taken over most of the state.

Koala

On Monday we had a bit of time in Adelaide before our flight home and so after engaging in some suspicious behaviour by cruising slowly round suburban streets looking for Barbary Doves we stopped off in Belair National Park with the hope of maybe sneaking in a Purple-crowned Lorikeet. Sadly this wasn't to be either but we did manage to spot a couple of koalas resting in the trees and that's always a good thing.

Home

  

More fishing and a mountain twitch

Murphy's Glen

We've not managed to do anything too much out of the ordinary in recent times but we have been able to fit in a couple of fishing trips to Botany Bay and obviously we're still getting up the hill as much as we can.

Cracking big Bream

Botany Bay is teeming with little fish and the action is consistent if not spectacular but last outing Emily managed to catch a proper fish. As it was clearly spending it's time swimming round a major container port we didn't think it was a very good idea to take it home for tea though.

Living room window birdstrike - Parrot-style

The weekend before last I received word that there were a load of Pilotbirds in a place called Murphy's Glen up in the Blue Mountains. After consulting a map I found that this campsite and walking trail are actually in Woodford only 7km from my in-laws' place. How had this escaped me for all these years? Anyway, what better place to base oneself for a bit of a twitch. On arriving in the area I found a patch of bush that had just been given a bit of the hazard reduction burn treatment. This meant that there was no understorey and so the usually skulking birds should be visible. It took a while but after getting excited by a couple of Whipbirds I was eventually able to track down two Pilotbirds #480 amongst the charred landscape. Even then they were perfectly silent and I almost missed them.

Pilotbird

Way back in November 2006 I was birding up in the rainforests round Gosford with Dave and he managed to get onto a Pilotbird which I missed. He's had that over me for the best part of 10 years. Not anymore!

On Saturday I hope to add another one to the list with the most outrageous twitch yet. It's time to go crazy for once so Emily and I are going to travel 1900km in an attempt to bag a vagrant that's just blown in from America. It better still be there when we arrive on Sunday morning...!